Sensible Train-Spotting (Amiga)

I knew I'd have to find something really special today to drag people's attention away from e3, and I think I may have found it. From the legendary Sensible Software, creators of Wizkid, Cannon Fodder, and Sensible Soccer, comes their ultimate Amiga game: Sensible Train-Spotting. I mean that literally, as it's the last game they ever made for the system, released on a magazine coverdisk (Amiga Power issue 53 to be precise) in 1995.

There's no catchy theme song like they usually have though. No music at all in fact.

This is actually the world's first computerised train spotting simulator, or at least that's what wikipedia says and I'm sure they wouldn't lie to me. The protagonist even has a little anorak and a flask.

Numbered trains drive past the screen from the left and also the right, and when a train's number matches one of the boxes on my card I have to move the cursor over to it and cross if off in time to be ready for the next train. Oh, plus there's a time limit.

A few seconds later and my first card is complete. My little dude gets to have a sip from his flask, but all I get for my trouble is the respect and admiration of the game, and a brand new card to fill out.

Wait a sec, what the fuck is going on in that train there?

It's like three simultaneous attempted muggings in adjacent seats, or a comic strip of a guy getting knifed in the head. It's not even slightly animated either. So weird.


LATER, ON CARD 6.

As I move through my cards, I get more numbers to cross off, and more digits to remember. Plus they like to stick other trains in my way, so I have to catch glimpses of the number through the gaps and windows.

If I cross off a number before I've seen it the game penalises me 10 seconds, though that never actually happens. At least not to someone of my train observing talent. The main thing I'm struggling with right now is staying awake.


EVENTUALLY, ON CARD 8.

Crap! It wasn't my fault, it just wasn't throwing out the right numbers! I can only work with what the game gives me. Failing a card means the sad man has to replay the previous level, and so on until he's trapped repeating level one. There's no gave over screen, and I've given up hope of ever seeing a 'you win!' screen, so I'll end this now.


Well it's (presumably) less boring than real train spotting, but there are definitely better Sensible Software games out there to play. Like... any of them. Not much else to say really, except that I liked the sun's dopey grin and little red cap, (though I'm disturbed at the possible implications.)

---

Yeah sorry that's all I got this time. But you can still leave a comment about Sensible Train-Spotting, Sensible Software, the site, or anything else relatively reasonably relevant in the box provided below.